Saturday, January 9, 2016

4 Months?!?!?!

Wow!!  I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post!!!!  I really got swept up in getting ready for a craft show at the end of November and getting my Etsy store up and running.  Once that was all done, the Etsy store took off and I was swamped with orders throughout the month of December.  Really left not much time to sleep, let alone do much else.  Lol.  I've made a decision that I need to re-allocate time and bring back the stuff that I want to do as well as have time for the things I need to do.  I'm not making promises, but my goal is to start really blogging a lot more.  I forgot how much I enjoyed it and really miss posting!  I know I don't have many readers, but hopefully there will be more in 2016 :)

Now, with the holidays done and life returning to "normal," I've decided to take the month of January to get caught up on some personal projects, finish up all the Christmas gifts I didn't get a chance to do, and allow myself to "reset" a bit.

It's been a busy and productive first week of January!  I started the year off with working on some belated Christmas gifts.... particularly the one for my mom.  I felt terrible about not being able to give her more than a mere 2-piece set of embroidered towels due to lack of time.  I actually had purchased a kit for placemats from Keepsake Quilting months ago with the intent of giving them to my mom as her handmade gift for Christmas.  Alas, ran out of time.  Once I cleaned up the disaster my craft room had become, I got to work.  Love how they turned out and they only took me an evening to do :)

May I present... .my first completed project for 2016!!

Unfortunately, the kit is no longer available from Keepsake Quiliting, but I did manage to find it from a shop called Auntie Chris Quilt Fabrics.

Once the placemats were done, I couldn't wait to get started on the next project.  I've got a bunch of friends whom we don't traditionally exchange gifts with for Christmas, but this year they brought us gifts so I really wanted to return the generosity.  I racked my brain for ideas and remember seeing a great tutorial by Melanie Ham on YouTube a while back for some panel pillow covers with a zipper closure that I thought would be good gifts and be relatively easy to do.  I had a bunch of pillow forms in my stash that I originally intended on using for hexi pillow covers, however things got in the way and as of today, still haven't had time to do.  I did a little stash diving and found some fabrics that were going to work perfectly and then got to work.

First up was a pillow for my gal-pal who is a total bacon fanatic.  She'd put bacon on her bacon if that was possible.  Lol.  I had picked up this fabric from Fabric.com a while back as one of those "I just need $4 to get to free shipping" kind of things, figuring I'd find something to use it on.  Once I found the design on Etsy, I knew it was a match made in heaven.  Lol.  Here are the details...

Bacon Zippered Pillow Case


Started: January 4, 2016
Completed: January 5, 2016
Fabric: Timeless Treasures Bacon Black from Fabric.com
Batting: Warm & White scraps from stash
Embroidery Design: "Either You Love Bacon or You're Wrong" by ChicEmbroidery on Etsy
Pillow Form: 16" x 16" Pillow Form -  Fairfield Poly-Fil Soft Touch Square Pillow
Zipper: 18" Black Zipper from Wawak

I'm not going to see my gal-pal until the 24th of this month, so for right now it's wrapped and waiting.  Can't wait to see the look on her face!  If only there was a way to make it bacon scented... it would really be awesome!

I had so much fun doing that pillow that I couldn't wait to make another.  Next up was a pillow for Hubby.  It's been a while since I had made him anything other than a keychain, so I figured it was about due.  Ha ha ha.  Hubby is a HUGE Doctor Who fan, so while perusing Etsy for some cool embroidery designs, I stumbled on this one from a shop called TedandFriends.  They've got some really cool "geeky" designs!  Once I found the design, it was off to figure out the fabric.  Again, I turned to Fabric.com and found some Fox and Houndstooth Bowties fabric by Robert Kauffman.  Unfortunately, they were out of stock and the other colorway (blue and teal) just wouldn't work. After scouring the internet, I found some yardage from another Etsy store called Texas Susannie's.  Ordered right away and got it days later!  Great customer service!! Once the first pillow was done, I wasted no time in getting this one started!

I'm really not happy with all the puckering in these two pillows in the embroidery, however I've been doing some research and think I might have found a solution.  Will be trying some new things on the next one and see if that helps, but in the meantime... Hubby was ecstatic with his gift!  Here are the details...

Bowties Are Cool Zippered Pillow Case

Started: January 6, 2016
Completed: January 8, 2016
Fabric: Fox and The Houndstooth Bowties Black by Robert Kauffman from Fabric.com
Batting: Warm & White scraps from stash
Embroidery Design: "Bowties Are Cool" by TedandFriends on Etsy
Pillow Form: 16" x 16" Pillow Form -  Fairfield Poly-Fil Soft Touch Square Pillow
Zipper: 18" Black Zipper from Wawak

Feels so great to actually be getting back to my "roots" and doing a little sewing and quilting!  I didn't realize just how much I missed it until I started doing these.  I just bought a bunch of fabrics and have embroidery designs picked out for more, most likely going to be listed in my Etsy shop for sale.   Also have the stuff together to make a couple more as belated gifts, so most likely I'll be working to get those done here over the next few days.

I've got a couple more personal projects that I would like to work on over the upcoming weeks, and can't wait to get started!  It really kinda feels weird that I'm not under pressure, stressed, and sleep-deprived with trying to get stuff done for shop and show deadlines.  This little "reset" I'm doing is really helping and making me happy.  Don't get me wrong, the shop is still up and I have a couple of shows this year, but I figured that I can start prepping inventory come next month or so and spend some time just being creative instead of being an assembly line :)

Hope everyone has had a wonderful Saturday, and don't worry..... I'll be back and more frequently (I hope) with all kinds of fun updates!!

Linking up with Show Off Saturday at SewCanShe